For the past decade or so I've been losing so many elders in my family. I have so few left now. That's when the realization of my own mortality came face front. In the past few years, now I've begun to lose my friends, lovers, classmates, acquaintances, and business associates ... people of my own age, and younger. Now my own mortality is more like a slap in the face. I seldom dwell on death and dying. After all, we all have the same demise ... we're not getting out of here alive. Dying is part of the process of living, but as I age I feel as though living is part of dying. We are born ... dying ... but now time feels like it flies by, unlike when we're young and tender and want time to pass faster because we "can't wait to be an adult". I would like to meet the person who dubbed later years as "golden years", so I could set them straight about that fallacy. As my mom and aunt often said, "Aging is not for the faint of heart." So, so, so, true!